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LV= Championship, Friday September 7
Ranting :
Posted: Sep 07, 2012
12.40pm: David Lloyd at Kent v Derbyshire
Tredwell changed ends but Coles quickly emerged as the main threat to Derbyshire during a splendidly aggressive spell. The 22-year-old is a big strong lad who looks to put maximum effort into every ball. And he hits the pitch hard.
Here, he made it two wickets in 17 balls by winning a lbw decision against Wes Durston. And it would have been three in 22 but for a drop in the gully.
Durston must have suspected he was in trouble when umpire Nick Cook did not cross his arms, as he tends to do when ruling not out. This time, he took his time but then raised the finger after Durston had moved across his stumps.
Dan Redfern might have gone without scoring, fending defensively at a lifter and seeing the resulting edge thck and fast parried just above head height, but not held, by Sam Northeast.
Redfern squared up this time, just cleared Northeast during Coles" next over to earn a luck boundary and Derbyshire were mightily relieved to reach lunch without further loss at 83 for three.
12.30pm: David Hopps at Somerset v Sussex
"Where would we be without Steve Magoffin," asked a Sussex supporter at the deckchair end. It turned out to be a rhetorical question. "I"ll tell you where we"d be. We"d be down the bottom with Worcestershire and Lancashire, that"s where we"d be."
Magoffin, armed with a new ball, ended stern Somerset resistance at Hove on the final morning. Alex Barrow and James Hildreth had taken their partnership to 80 in 32.2 overs when Magoffin, with the new ball only five deliveries old, found the penetration to have Barrow caught at first slip. At 231 for 5, Somerset needed another 157. Hildreth remains 56 not out at lunch.
Barrow walked off slowly, his dejection apparent. He is only 20 and had looked composed for his 40. But you are not really a man until you have seen off the likes of Magoffin with a hard ball in hand.
Magoffin would be a contender for a Division one team of the season. At his best, you wonder why Australia did not even find a place for him in their A side which toured England this summer. Sussex will be grateful for that.
Leading Championship wicket-takers, Division One, go something like this:
62 at 13.66: Graham Onions, Durham
61 at 18.60: Toby Roland-Jones, Middx
58 at 23.89: Chris Wright, Warwickshire
54 at 18.68: Steve Magoffin, Sussex
54 at 19.16: Andre Adams, Nottinghamshire
54 at 20.33: Keith Barker, Warwickshire
12:35pm: Vithushan Ehantharajah at Middlesex v Lancashire
Cricketer nicknames are generally rubbish. Dawid "AC" Malan is one of the better ones.
In my lifetime AC Milan (geddit?) have gone from one of the greatest sides of all time to their current incarnation a team of minimal flair; having to balance their books with the departures of players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Andrea Pirlo and Clarence Seedorf, and bringing in more for want of a better phrase two dimensional footballers in Giampaolo Pazzini, Riccardo Montolivo and Nigel de Jong.
But whatever their guise, the red and black stripes of Milan represent one thing class. They may have swapped ostentatious guile for tenacious gumption magical unicorns for steadfast workhorses but at least they"ll still look classy.
Dawid Malan will never be the best batsman in the country or the most dependable. But he"ll always look stylish.
Middlesex are 224 for 4 the Rossoneri are unbeaten on 73.
12.30pm: Jarrod Kimber at Surrey v Notts
KP gets Voges with an offspinning throat ball that spat at him. de Bruyn taking a one handed blinder. Notts are 66 for 3 at lunch.
12.25pm: Ivo Tennant at Hampshire v Essex
Quite a morning at the soon-to-be-further-developed West End, where Hampshire are making a valiant attempt to score more than 400 runs in the final innings of the match. That has never happened on this ground before; only at Northlands Road. Jimmy Adams is heading towards a century, Liam Dawson has made 90 and Maurice pronounced correctly over the tannoy here as Moreese - Chambers is injured and is not expected to bowl again in this match. The pitch is flattening out.
Hampshire have to triumph to stand any chance of gaining promotion. Should they achieve this, in addition to becoming t20 champions and reaching the CB40 final, it will be one hell of a season.
12.00pm: Jarrod Kimber at Surrey v Notts
If you see Harry Gurney in the street, can you ask him why on the last ball of the first over the day he sort of thought about hitting out and then lobbed the ball gently to mid off, cheers. Harry Gurney is a great name though, I see him as a man who is a doctor in a small village who solves crimes in the weekend wearing sleeveless vests.
The predictable time has come for Notts, both Batty and Kartik are operating now, and any sort of sense of ease from earlier when the seamers were on has disappeared in the dust of the Oval wicket. Wessels was the first to perish to the spinners, there will be others. There will be others.
Notts are 57 for 2 chasing more than they can score today unless Kartik is taken ill.
11.50am: David Lloyd at Kent v Derbyshire
A few maidens here, too, Hoppsy. But no news had been extremely good news for Derbyshire and the last thing they wanted was the bit of excitement that had Kent supporters clapping merrily after 75 minutes.
Tredwell had failed to make any impression. But when the spinner was replaced by Matt Coles, it took the England Lion only two balls to end Paul Borrington"s resistance with a leg before dismissal.
Perhaps Borrington though he had got a faint edge. Anyway, he had to drag himself from the crease and his slow, slow walk back to the pavilion was not made any more pleasant by one home supporter shouting: "Get a move on you"re out."
And so he was, leaving Derbyshire 57 for two with 22 of the day"s overs gone.
11:35am: Vithushan Ehantharajah at Middlesex v Lancashire
Permutations galore in the Lord"s media centre before the start of play. I"ve spent the last 30 minutes scrawling things down, working out whether Lancashire really have to match whatever Surrey do at the Oval. I thought I found a way that Lancashire could lose, provided Surrey draw, win next week and still stay up, but I think that involved giving them a couple of extra points and forgetting they don"t have Akram or Muralitharan anymore.
My head hurts.
Chris Rogers is looking pretty comfortable this morning, just 14 runs away from his fourth century of the season. Now all I can think about are Buck Rogers puns.
He departs for 86 phew to Simon Kerrigan. It"s the last day of play and there is a bit of turn in the pitch, so Kerrigan should fancy his chances. He"s got a right-hander in Neil Dexter to turn the ball away from, which should mean fewer sweeps. Malan looks good as he moves to his fifty.
Now, back to the maths
11.25am: David Hopps at Sussex v Somerset
This is as colourful as I can make it:
66.6 Hatchett to Barrow, no run
66.5 Hatchett to Barrow, no run
66.4 Hatchett to Barrow, no run
66.3 Hatchett to Barrow, no run
66.2 Hatchett to Barrow, no run
66.1 Hatchett to Barrow, no run
End of over 66 (maiden) Somerset 195/4 (201 runs required) JC Hildreth 21* (54b 4x4) MS Panesar 23-7-64-1 AWR Barrow 19* (52b 3x4) LJ Hatchett 9-4-27-0
65.6 Panesar to Hildreth, no run
65.5 Panesar to Hildreth, no run
65.4 Panesar to Hildreth, no run
65.3 Panesar to Hildreth, no run
65.2 Panesar to Hildreth, no run
65.1 Panesar to Hildreth, no run
10.50am: Ivo Tennant at Hampshire v Essex
Hampshire have been given the go-ahead from Eastleigh Borough Council to build their planned hotel at the Northern End. It will be a four star Hilton, incorporating conference, hospitality and media facilities as well as 175 bedrooms. Work will start next week on clearing away the old press box and TV balcony which has housed sweating Sky commentators more accustomed to air conditioned rooms.
The aim is to complete the entire project in time for the Test match against India in 2014. Hampshire feel they will by then have come up with the only model Test match venue in the country, as specified by the ECB. The hope is that an Ashes Test will duly follow.
10.35am: Jarrod Kimber entirely loses focus at Surrey v Notts
Some people chase greatness, others sleep in and go for a jog. On my jog I thought to my self, I should probably make some calls this morning and confirm the Spriegel to Northants rumour I heard yesterday. It will feel good to do it, and make me something like a journalist.
Then I thought about Icelandic worm footage that was on the internet a while ago.
On my arrival back home, Captain Hopps had forwarded a press release from Northants, time stamped 4am (they take their jobs seriously there) saying that Spriegel had been signed by Northants. No doubt they were jolted into action by my expose in yesterday"s county blog.
My chance to turn a rumour into a story was thwarted by the midnight Northants press officer. So to feel like a proper journalist, I"m wearing a trilbly like hat, I have not yet put the word "press" on it, but I might.
Spriegel is a hard cricketer to get a story on, as Northant"s coach David Ripley hinted when stating he was a "multi-dimensional cricketer". What"s your favourite other dimension? Have you ever surfed the astral plane? Are you a frequent traveller on the Einstein-Rosen Bridge?
10.30am: David Lloyd at Kent v Derbyshire
In theory, at least, all results are still possible here going into the final day. Realistically, a Kent win looks favourite, followed by a draw. But whatever the outcome, from a neutral"s point of view it will be a shame if we are again talking about James Tredwell come the end of play.
It has been a cracking game to watch, really enjoyable with plenty of tough cricket, and it would be a pity if Derbyshire were to leave with a bitter taste in their mouths as a result of Tredwell introduced to the match at the halfway stage playing a key role.
Derbyshire had their say last night, through head coach Karl Krikken, and they were not happy with developments. "It"s wrong. It"s totally and utterly wrong," said Krikken after the ECB had reversed an earlier decision that Tredwell would not be able to take Adam Riley"s place if he appeared in Wednesday"s ODI against South Africa.
Anyway, Derbyshire"s job now is to save this game or win it if they bat like princes and Krikken added: "We will get on with it now and fight to get a positive result so that we get promoted. We"ll look to bat out against an England spinner rather than a rookie spinner."
As thing stand, leaders Derbyshire are now only a point clear of Yorkshire. A home win here would put third-placed Kent just six points back and turn next week"s final round of games into a real dog-fight.
But a draw changes a lot. In that case, the gap between first and third would remain at 22 points, leaving Derbyshire needing to pick up only two points from their game at home to Hampshire to be sure of returning to the first division for the first since 2000.
Derbyshire resume on 30 for one 374 runs away from victory and with a minimum 96 overs to survive for the draw.
⁞
10.15am: Warwickshire's title and other stories
ESPNcricinfo has been providing comprehensive coverage of all the matches that matter as the County Championship reaches its climax.
George Dobell tells the story of Warwickshire's championship triumph, but that is not all.
Derbyshire's anger at James Tredwell's late inclusion for Kent is explained by David Lloyd,
David Hopps tells of how Murray Goodwin was sent kicking and screaming into supposed retirement down at Hove, and Jarrod Kimber, not for the first time, is peeved by Surrey.
If you have the time, why not take a look at the best coverage around?
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